This disclosure relates to a method for producing a nano-gap in a brittle film assisted by a stabilizing substrate.
DNA sequencing is a process used to determine the precise order of four nucleotide bases, which comprise a DNA strand. The information obtained from DNA sequencing is useful to various fields of biology and other sciences, forensics, medicines, agriculture, and other areas of study. One of the challenges of biotechnology is establishing the base sequence of individual molecules of DNA/RNA without PCR amplification or other modifications to the molecule, which can cause reading defects, and contaminations of samples. One known method of DNA sequencing is the conventional Sanger method. This method uses shotgun sequencing that only give portions of the DNA strand and can require many sequencing steps, overlapping reads, and good amount of computational power to merge the sequences. This method can be time consuming and resource intensive, thus can be costly. An alternative method for conventional Sanger method is nano-gap based (nano-pore based) sequencing. In this method, DNA can be passed through a nano-gap. DNA or RNA molecule can be electrophoretically driven in a strict linear sequence through the nano-gap whose width can approximately be a minimum of 1.5 nanometers. The molecule can be detected when the DNA molecules release an ionic current while moving through the nano-gap. Further, the amount of current is very sensitive to the size and shape of the nano-gap. If single nucleotides (bases), strands of DNA or other molecules pass through or is near the nano-gap, a characteristic change in the magnitude of the current is created through the nano-gap. Analyzing the transverse conductance (current) with respect to time the molecules composition can be extrapolated and sequenced. Using nano-gap-based sequencing a large read length and high throughput can be achieved simultaneously. However making nano-electrodes that are aligned with the nano-gap is difficult.
As such it would be useful to have a method for producing a nano-gap in a brittle film assisted by stabilizing substrate.